Ayaan Hirsi Ali quotes

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born Dutch-American activist, writer, and former politician. Her outspoken criticism of Islam and advocacy for women's rights have sparked widespread debate. She has become an influential voice on issues of integration, freedom of speech, and human rights. Here are 143 of her quotes:

Islam is not a race...Islam is simply a set of beliefs, and it is not 'Islamophobic' to say Islam is incompatible with liberal democracy. (Ayaan Hirsi Ali)
Free speech is the bedrock of liberty and a free society. And yes, it includes the right to blaspheme and offend. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Where there is no freedom of speech, there is no conscience. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
I see no difference between Islam and Islamism. Islam is defined as submission to the will of Allah, as it is described in the Koran. Islamism is just Islam in its most pure form. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
People ask me if I have some kind of death wish, to keep saying the things I do. The answer is no: I would like to keep living. However, some things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
I would like to be judged on the validity of my arguments, not as a victim. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Drinking wine and wearing trousers were nothing compared to reading the history of ideas. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Islam was like a mental cage. At first, when you open the door, the caged bird stays inside: it is frightened. It has internalized its imprisonment. It takes time for the bird to escape, even after someone has opened the doors to its cage. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
There is a huge difference between being tolerant and tolerating intolerance. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
As a woman you are better off in life earning your own money. You couldn't prevent your husband from leaving you or taking another wife, but you could have some of your dignity if you didn't have to beg him for financial support. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
In a sense, my grandmother was living in the Iron Age. There was no system of writing among the nomads. Metal artifacts were rare and precious. ... The first time she saw a white person my grandmother was in her thirties: she thought this person's skin had burned off. (Ayaan Hirsi Ali)
Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Of course, the overwhelming majority of Muslims are not terrorists or sympathetic to terrorists. Equating all Muslims with terrorism is stupid and wrong. But acknowledging that there is a link between Islam and terror is appropriate and necessary. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
My first experience in the Netherlands was very pleasant, extremely pleasant. I mean, I got my residence permit, refugee status, within four weeks of arrival. People treated me extremely well. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
However, some things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
We who don't want radical Islam to spread must compete with the agents of radical Islam. I want to see what would happen if Christians, feminists and Enlightenment thinkers were to start proselytizing in the Muslim community. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
When I was in Holland, the idea was, all cultures are equal and all are to be preserved. My idea was, no, all humans are equal, but not all cultures are equal. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Every accommodation of Muslim demands leads to a sense of euphoria and a conviction that Allah is on their side. They see every act of appeasement as an invitation to make fresh demands. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
In the real world, equal respect for all cultures doesn't translate into a rich mosaic of colorful and proud peoples interacting peacefully while maintaining a delightful diversity of food and craftwork. It translates into closed pockets of oppression, ignorance, and abuse. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The most pressing question of our time is this: Is European society to be taken over by a radical invasion of Muslim immigrants? View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Islam is not a religion of peace. It's a political theory of conquest that seeks domination by any means it can. (Ayaan Hirsi Ali)
On September 16, 1978, there was an eclipse of the moon in Riyadh. Late one afternoon it became visible: a dark shadow moving slowly across the face of the pale moon in the darkening blue sky. There was a frantic knocking on the door. When I opened it, our neighbor asked if we were safe. He said it was the Day of Judgement, when the Quran says the sun will rise from the west and the seas will flood, when all the dead will rise and Allah's angels will weigh our sins and virtue, expediting the good to Paradise and the bad to Hell. Though it was barely twilight, the muezzin suddenly called for prayer--not one mosque calling carefully after another, as they usually did, but all the mosques clamoring all at once, all over the city. There was shouting across the neighborhood. When I looked outside I saw people praying in the street. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
I lived in countries that had no democracy... so I don't find myself in the same luxury as you do. You grew up in freedom, and you can spit on freedom because you don't know what it is not to have freedom. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Of course, I also encountered hostile reactions in campaigning. People called me names, even spat at me; I received more threats. The most remarkable people, to me, were those who apparently approved of everything I said but nonetheless wouldn't dream of voting for the Liberal Party. It reminded me of Somalia: they wouldn't vote outside their clan. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Reality is not easy, but all this make-believe doesn't make it easier. View quote
Ayaan Hirsi Ali